BSE Chapter 3-43

Alexander flew down to the surface for the third round of negotiations. While he was pretty sure what he was going to do, that could change. He wanted all of his questions answered before he made his final decision.

As much as he would like to just accept this title and join the Asgardians so he could be done with politics for the foreseeable future, this was a huge decision to make. An even bigger one than when he decided to form his own nation since that choice had been purely designed to protect him from someone within the STO from coming in and making the claim themselves. Had he known what he knew now, he probably would have reached out to the Asgardians sooner.

His decision to claim the system had probably garnered attention among the political heavyweights within the STO. Something he would have preferred to avoid but it seemed like the best choice at the time. Once it got out that he had dealings with the Asgardians, it would likely cause a ruckus.

It would put Unokane back in the political limelight, which is something he could do without. Honestly, if Alexander had been given a choice, he would have preferred to just side on the sidelines and slowly chunk away at Omni’s market share for a few decades. Unfortunately, forces beyond his control had forced him to act. At some point, he was going to need to go to Earth to smooth things over with the STO. Maybe even act as an intermediary between them and Char to finally end this stupid pirate classification that they had heaped on them. Char may not seem all that concerned about it, but Alexander could see it slowing his ability to disrupt Omni’s enterprises.

When he arrived at the station, it was the same as the first few times. He followed Loki to the train where they rode in silence until their destination. Once they arrived at the same tower as on the first trip, Loki took Theo away and Alexander went to Katalynn’s office.

As he entered the office, he found the desk empty, but he could hear noises coming from somewhere within the room. He followed the sounds until he arrived at a side door that led to a training room. Katalynn was sparing with two androids, the machines whipping around with impressive speed.

If this was her practice routine, it was no wonder Alexander had so much trouble in their little exhibition match.

As he stood there and watched, he even saw one of the androids perform the same move that he had used against her to finally land the hit on her. This time, she shoved the end of the staff close to her off to the side instead of down and her kick landed heavily against the android's lightly padded chest, sending the bipedal robot stumbling back hard enough that its stabilizer failed to keep it upright.

The second robot was ready to step in but she held her hand up and it stopped moving.

Alexander clapped. “Very impressive,” he said, meaning every word.

She took a towel from a rack and wiped the sweat from her face before responding. “It is not as impressive as it seems. I am simply building muscle memory in case that sort of situation ever presents itself again. Have you finally decided on a course of action or have you come for a sparring match? You are quick, but you lack technique. It would be interesting to see what you were capable of if you were actually trained.”

“I prefer to focus my time on building things instead of breaking them,” he said diplomatically.

Katalynn snorted softly at that. “Fair enough. There are far too few of my people who see the benefit of focusing their minds on the pursuit of knowledge over glory in battle. Both have their places but a society can’t grow without science and technology.”

Alexander just stared at her, not expecting this sort of statement from the woman.

She must have read his avatar’s expression. “Do not think us ignorant because we value martial strength. It takes a strong leader to ensure strong personalities stay in line. And even then it is not always the case,” that last part came out with a bit of bitterness.

“That is one of the issues we need to speak on,” he stated, stopping the woman from taking control of the conversation. Alexander needed to remind himself to look past the woman in front of him. This was someone who not only had personal power, she had political power that rivaled the Chairman of the STO. In some cases, it might even exceed it because she didn’t lead from the back, she led from the front.

“You want to know if Isbjorn will cause issues for you?” she asked as she put the towel down.

“I assume what we saw here was his entire fleet and that his level of technology rivals yours?”

“Not all of his fleet, but most of it. And perhaps.”

“Then no,” he admitted. “And I’m not just saying that to be condescending or to belittle your technology. It also isn’t because I think my defenses or abilities are insurmountable and that he couldn’t succeed if he tried hard enough. I simply don’t think he has a reason to cause issues for me. I was more worried about what my people's role would be in a conflict against him.”

“I would like to say open conflict within Asgardian space is unheard of, but it isn’t. It probably isn’t as widespread as you’re imagining though. I can count on one hand the number of internal disagreements that have led to open war since our founding. I can count on both hands the number of disagreements that have led to single combat amongst Jarls and upstarts who have either taken their place or been put in their place. That is not a euphemism for death either. Most trials by combat are to first blood, they rarely end in the death of either side.”

“Rarely is not never,” Alexander reminded her.

“That is true. While death amongst Jarls is rare, if they challenge the King or Lagertha, in my case, only one can remain.”

“Why do it at all?” Alexander asked, not understanding the tradition.

“When the Asgardian Accords were first signed, nobody could agree on who should lead them. They tried forming an assembly of all of the signees like the STO, but that quickly led to infighting and backstabbing as people jockeyed for positions within the new government. Sound familiar?” she asked.

He bobbed his avatar slowly and she smiled slightly before continuing.

“What the STO had done to us was still fresh in everyone's minds back then and the majority quickly saw this new government turning out to just be another copy of what we were trying to avoid. Fear of falling into that same trap and the threat of the Shican still lurking within the tentative borders of this new alliance forced the members to take drastic actions. The rule of merit was eventually created. That changed over the years into the rule of the strong as our fleets were slowly whittled away by the Shican and it has remained in place ever since.”

Alexander was confused by that. “I thought the Shican pulled back after five years?”

“No, the STO abandoned us after only two years because they had lost too many ships to the Shican. They probably still fought them along their border for the remainder of what they dubbed the Shican War, but they did not once lift a finger to help those they abandoned. That was the spark that caused the formation of the Asgardian Alliance. The Alliance fought until the few remaining Shican finally withdrew a full eight years after that. Most of our fleets were decimated by that point and the worlds withdrew to lick their wounds. It wasn’t until a full decade later that the original alliance members came back together to sign the Accords which eventually turned into the Asgardian Union that you see today, although, everyone just calls themselves Asgardians. Even then, the Shican threat never truly went away until a little over forty years ago. My father fought against them a few times in his youth.”

“I can see why your people chose to avoid the STO after that,” he muttered.

She shrugged. “That is ancient history, but you haven’t come here to discuss that. As much as I appreciate your concern for me, I would be a poor leader if I needed to turn to the Jarls to help deal with another Jarl every time one got rowdy. I will handle Isbjorn as is my duty. You and your people only need to step in if he does something underhanded, which is a possibility with him. Does that answer your question?”

Alexander nodded his avatar, happy with the explanation.

All that was left was learning all the rules and responsibilities he would need to follow. He had perused the document she had shown him the last time, but certainly, that couldn’t be all of it. When he studied her slightly annoyed expression. He got the distinct impression she knew he had gotten her talking about history to delay this decision. With a heavy internal sigh, he asked her about the last two items holding up this choice.

The responsibilities had been laid out clearly in the original document he had been given, which was surprising. The rules were a bit different.

“As I mentioned before,” Katalynn said in annoyance. “Jarls rule their territories as they see fit, with a few exceptions for Asgardian law. That is different from local laws. There are only a few Asgardian laws, and we keep them that way because each territory has its own issues. Think of them like STO laws and planetary laws if that’s easier for you. They cover how to treat populations as well as criminals. These laws cover what constitutes a crime and the types of punishment that can be applied to them. This ensures fairness across all of the territories and prevents people from migrating to a world with softer laws where they can continue to commit crimes. You can read the document at length on your own time,” she said, shoving a data disk at him after they had reentered her office.

Alexander took the disk and stuck it into one of his pouches.

“I get your hesitancy, Kane, this is a big decision to make, but we aren’t the great evil that the STO had portrayed us to be. We require very little of the union members. That being said, there are some ceremonial issues we need to discuss.”

“Like the greeting ceremony?” he guessed.

“That was one. You already passed that one so we will not need to do so again. The other is a ceremonial oath to be there for the protection of the other union members. This will be done in front of me and my advisors. Normally this would also include the Jarls but we are at war and they cannot be summoned to oversee the joining so a substitute will stand in for them.”

He wanted to say that didn’t sound so bad, but something in the way she said it made him think there was a catch. “It’s not another ceremony by combat is it?”

“No, but you will need to demonstrate you can handle a weapon. The original intention of this ceremony was meant as a symbolic sharing of the joining side’s fighting styles to further strengthen the Asgardian people.”

“I’m sure I can swing a weapon around if you need me to,” he said uncertainly.

She shook her head. “That won’t be enough. You need to show you understand how to wield the weapon. If you can’t wield something as simple as a blade or spear, why would anyone trust that you could lead a fleet?”

“But I’m not leading my fleet, Captain Krieger is.”

“It doesn’t matter. By Asgardian law, you are in charge of your fleet, and ultimately responsible for its actions, good or bad. This law was established to prevent Jarls from claiming ignorance as a defense if their fleets attacked the STO or pulled some other foolish actions.”

“Ok, but I don’t know how to fight.”

She glanced back toward the training room. “I’ve heard you’re a quick learner. Go pick a weapon and train. You have three hours until the ceremony.”

“What? I haven’t even said yes to your proposal yet.”

She turned back to him. “Are you telling me you flew back down here to ask a few questions you could have asked over the radio?”

“Well, no.”

“Then it sounds to me that you have already made a decision, otherwise you would have left the system by now or simply turned me down and asked me for the original alliance you proposed. I suggest you hurry, times ticking away and there are issues I need to discuss with you after you’re sworn in.”

Alexander had to admit the woman was correct. Given everything he had learned and the facts that were laid out, the best option was joining the Asgardian Union. Hesitating now was just him dragging his feet.

He nodded and made his way into the training room where he grabbed the first practice weapon that he saw. It was some sort of bladed weapon on a stick. He wasn’t familiar with melee weapons so couldn’t say exactly what it was, but it was long enough to work with his lanky form so he figured it would be fine.

He gave the practice weapon a few test swings, finding it heavier than he originally thought considering it was made from some sort of wood. The weight wasn’t an issue for him though.

“Are you voice or motion-activated?” he asked the stationary androids.

“User preference,” they replied in a tinny voice.

That response probably ruled out self-learning. “I need to learn how to use this weapon.”

“Please state the weapon type you wish to learn as well as instructional training or sparring as your preference,” they said in unison once more.

He sighed. “I don’t know what it’s called, it’s a blade on a pole.”

“You have selected polearm training. Please select instructional or sparring.”

Polearm? Eh, it was probably close enough. “Instructional, at maximum speed.”

“Recommended instructional training speed is ten percent, are you sure you wish to increase it to one hundred percent?”

“Yes.” He didn’t have time to waste watching these androids try to demonstrate a weapon at slow speed. He would simply record the lesson or jack up his framerate as needed.

What followed was a rapid-fire of back-and-forth movements between the two androids as they demonstrated both attack and defensive moves with similar training weapons.

Once they finished, Alexander went through the motions himself, finding it a bit harder than he thought. Most of that was because his body wasn’t built like a human one. He didn’t have the same explosive movement with his arms and legs because he had no knees or elbows, he only had segments. After a bit of trial and error, he could mimic it enough to continue the practice.

When he felt he had the movements down, he restarted the training, this time setting the androids to defensive sparring mode.

Alexander quickly found himself frustrated as the humanoid robot blocked or dodged every strike. It seemed that while he understood the motions, he failed to grasp how to implement them in a way to actually hit the damn machine.

He was growing more and more frustrated until a voice interrupted his session.

“End session,” a voice said and the androids stepped back to their waiting positions.

He had been so focused that he had completely missed Loki entering the room.

“Lagertha has sent me to escort you to the ceremony.”

“I thought I had three hours?”

The man smiled slightly. “It has been three hours.”

He looked at his internal clock and cursed. Not only had he completely lost focus on what was around him, he had lost track of time.

Alexander set the weapon back in the rack and followed Loki out. He would just have to hope his efforts had borne some fruit. It would be extremely upsetting if this entire trip ended in a failure just because he couldn’t swing a sword around well enough.